Wednesday, April 30, 2008

If you’ve picked up a paper the last few weeks, odds are you’ve seen a frenzy of stories about rising food prices. And if even if you haven’t, you’ve definitely felt the hit in your wallet. American grocery costs have risen around 5% over the last year, while salaries have only gone up 3.5%. That means we’re paying more for loaves of bread and our paychecks aren’t making up the difference. And in certain nations? The food situation is so bad, they WISH they had our problems.

While some journalists are taking the age-old EVERYBODY PANIC! approach, most are calmly disseminating inflation information as best they can. Unfortunately, it’s complicated stuff - difficult to explain and even harder to cover thoroughly. While I’ve perused dozens of great articles on one certain aspect of the crisis (global impact, farmer prosperity, etc.), I haven’t seen one that gives an overview of the situation: why prices are rocketing, how it affects the entire globe, and where we’re going to come up with solutions.

So, here’s a shot. Hopefully, it’ll help clarify a few things. And readers, if I’ve gotten something wrong (which is pretty normal around here), please set me right.

WHAT IT IS (in a sentence)

For a variety of interconnected reasons, food prices are rising globally, causing economic strife in the U.S. and dangerous shortages in dozens of poorer countries.

WHY IT’S HAPPENING

1) Population growth. According to The New York Times, “the world’s developing countries have been growing about 7 percent a year, an unusually rapid rate by historical standards.” Simply, this increases demand for food in countries that can’t necessarily keep up.

2) Global adoption of the Western diet, especially in India and China. Newly-affluent nations are seeing high numbers of people move into the middle class. This is ostensibly a good thing, since more have access to health care and housing. However, many are also switching to the Western diet, choosing meat, dairy, and convenience foods over traditional chow like vegetables and grains. This puts a strain on current production methods, driving prices up.

3) Bad weather. This one’s pretty simple. Australia, Canada, and Ukraine, all huge exporters of rice and grains, got meteorologically screwed last year. It put stress on other sources to make up the difference. Forecasts are looking up, though, so that’s good news.

4) Gas prices. Oil is ludicrously expensive the world over, making it hard to grow, fertilize, harvest, package, and transport food – especially to places that can’t afford it.

5) Diversion of crops to make biofuel/ethanol. Since fuel prices are insane, the U.S. is trying to come up with cheaper alternatives, focusing mainly on corn-based ethanol. In fact, Newsweek's Daniel Gross states that, “Last year, one fifth of the U.S. corn crop was diverted to ethanol refineries.” This means three things: A) corn prices rise because it’s now a more valuable commodity, B) the costs of OTHER crops increase since they’re scarcer than before, and C) meat goes up as well, since corn is the main source of animal feed.

6) Investors. These guys are betting on high food prices over the next few years, driving costs up even more. This hurts every single person but the investor, “upsetting business plans, sparking inflation, causing political instability and inflicting widespread economic pain.” (If you hear of someone doing this, smack him. I give you permission.)

HOW IT’S AFFECTING/WILL AFFECT AMERICANS

First off, unless something apocalyptic happens, U.S. citizens will not starve. Many won’t even notice there’s an issue. Let’s get that out of the way, so we can stop adding to the hysteria by hoarding 50-pound bags of rice from Costco. In the meantime, here are the real effects:

1) Rising costs passed on to the consumer. This one’s the doozy. All of the aforementioned reasons (but mostly the last four) have contributed to skyrocketing prices on common edibles. According to various sources, milk is up about 15%, white carbs (pasta and bread) about 13%, and eggs a staggering 25% over 12 months ago. The New York Times claims, “With a few exceptions, nearly every grocery category measured by the Labor Department … has increased in the last year.” If this really is a full-on recession (which, yep), it probably won’t get better anytime soon, if at all.

2) Inadequate nutrition for the poor. “The Congressional Budget Office projects that a record 28 million Americans will require food stamps this year,” says Newsweek. This is not so good, as it means people in a lower economic bracket are increasingly unable to afford fundamental, healthy meals. Food banks are taking a hit, too, and one Iowa director “estimates that her group's food bills have increased 30 to 40 percent in the past year.”

3) Smaller portions and packaging. Next time you visit a supermarket, you might notice the 1.5-liter containers of soda and orange juice going for the same price the 2-liter guys used to. It’s the same with Skippy Peanut Butter (old: 18oz, new: 16.2 oz), Ramen (old: 4 oz, new: 3.5 oz), and a slew of other products, as companies are looking to save a buck wherever they can.

4) Restaurant cutbacks. Eatery owners – especially family-owned independent ones - are being hit HARD by inflation. Wholesalers raised prices over 7% last year, transportation costs are mounting, and customers are cooking at home more, reducing earnings. According to The Wall Street Journal's Juliet Chung, “Ruth's Chris Steak House saw fourth-quarter profit in 2007 fall 62% compared with the same period a year earlier. Similarly, fourth-quarter profit was down 48% at Domino's Pizza and 35% at the Cheesecake Factory.” Restaurants are compensating by serving smaller portions, using cheaper cuts of meat, and offering more pasta dishes, but the benefits may be marginal.

5) Ethanol controversy. Expect this to be a hot-button issue over the next presidency, as we search for alternatives to oil. The problem is, a lot of people are making bucks off ethanol, including farmers who’ve never seen that kind of money before. Which brings us to …

6) Happy farmers. One of the positive side effects of this whole conundrum is that American farmers are finally seeing profits. David Streitfeld of the New York Times says, “The Agriculture Department forecasts that farm income this year will be 50 percent greater than the average of the last 10 years.” Of course, fuel, fertilizer, and labor (among other things) are becoming more expensive, too, and there’s that whole volatility/who-knows-what-will-happen-next-year issue. But for now, Mr. Green Jeans in Nebraska is probably doing okay.

"Last year wheat prices rose 77% and rice 16%. These were some of the sharpest rises in food prices ever. But this year the speed of change has accelerated. Since January, rice prices have soared 141%; the price of one variety of wheat shot up 25% in a day."

The U.N. has called it "a silent tsunami which knows no borders sweeping the world,” and it’s no wonder why. 121 countries are experiencing crisis-level food shortages, and there are estimates that 100 million people “on every continent” will go hungry. Egypt, Mexico, India, Cameroon, Indonesia, and Haiti have already seen protests and riots, and if food production and distribution continues as-is, the situation will only deteriorate.

The saddest part is, according to one economist, “In 2003, we were talking about ending world hunger—and it looked like a sensible target.” It’s something to think of next time I complain that egg prices went up again.

LARGE-SCALE SOLUTIONS

1) The United Nations task force. The U.N. has developed a two-pronged plan to address the immediate needs of the hungry and provide tools needed for self-sustainable farming. This will come at a cost of $1.7 billion, $475 million of which has already been secured.

2) Small-scale agriculture. Globally, farmers have suddenly become V.I.P.s, as millions increasingly depend on their crops and labor opportunities to survive. Due to this trend, many are citing smaller, more localized growing as a possible fix to the food shortage. Malawi in particular has been heralded as an example, as their harvest increased 100% in a single year after officials “established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and high-yield seeds.”

3) Moving away from ethanol. Again, a controversial subject, but experts say it could help alleviate budget strain.

4) Time. Since growing food takes awhile, new agricultural strategies won’t produce results for a few years now. But positive weather forecasts, a slight shift back toward wheat farming, and plans put into affect now mean good things for the future.

4) Donate and volunteer. The benefits of giving money are immediate and apparent. As for volunteering, it will not only cut labor costs for philanthropies, but you’ll get to experience up close what the food problem means for so many people. Charity Navigator and Idealist.org are great places to start.

5) Don’t panic. And stop hoarding food, dangit!

And that’s it. Readers, I’d love to hear opinions and (definitely) corrections. Where do you see this all going? What are you doing to alleviate the situation? Bring the noise.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It's a saucy batch of links today, folks. Opinions abound on the impending recession/ever-increasing grocery prices, and bloggers aren't afraid to get all up in ... uh, somebody's ... face. Read on and don't forget to express yo'self! (Note: Not necessarily Madonna-style.) (Note: Though, if you have a cone bra, go for it.)

New York Times: Boy or Girl? The Answer May Depend on Mom’s Eating HabitsWow! A link has been found between baby genders and skipping meals. Here’s a preview: “There was also a strong correlation between women eating breakfast cereals and producing sons.” This could mean strange things for cereal-naming professionals. Anyone up for a nice bowl of Cracklin’ Oat Man? How about Honey Boy-nches of Oats? (Gah. Sorry.)

New York Times: Strategic Spending on Organic FoodsTurns out that peaches, strawberries, sweet bell peppers, celery, and lettuce get pretty good bang for the buck, while you don't really need to bother buying organic onions, mangoes, asparagus, broccoli and eggplant. Read the mile-long comment section for more.

Serious Eats: Buying Produce for OneAs god is my witness, I shall never buy romaine for a family of 12 again! (Note: Because it’s just me and The Boyfriend, you see.) (Note: Anyway, lots of good suggestions here.)

Serious Eats: Cooking for the Pope – Lidia Bastianich Comes Full CircleSweet Lidia presents her papal menu for Benedict’s U.S. tour. I’ve had the good fortune to eat those pear/romano raviolis before, and they are heaven on a stick. (Note: they don’t actually come on a stick. It’s an expression.) (Note: That I made up just now.) (Note: Now I'm just babbling.)

Wall Street Journal: Load Up the PantryStockpiling is usually a good idea, but Iiiiiiii dunno about this piece. It's a tad alarmist, and the first of what will surely be many, “OKAY, IT’S TIME FOR EVERYBODY TO FREAK OUT!” articles on rising food prices. There’s no shortage in the U.S., so I'm thinkin' everybody needs to chill out for a sec. (Thanks to Like Merchant Ships for the link.)

Monday, April 28, 2008

Mornin’ everybody! Hope y’all had a lovely weekend, and that the weather was half as nice as it was here in Brooklyn: blooming trees, perfect skies, visible patch of grass – the whole nine. Even our neighborhood Incredibly Frightening Drunk Who Hangs Out 24-7 at the Last Remaining Pay Phone on Earth was suitably enchanted.

My weekend was fantastic, spoiled only briefly by a botched attempt at Roasted Chickpeas. I got ‘em right the second time around, but wanted to transcribe the wrong directions, just in case anyone ever attempts them. Here goes:

Saturday, April 26, 2008

A bunch this week on the diet foods post, including Dani’s sugar substitutes, Anne’s Tasti D-Light observations, and Kelly’s inventive SnackWells sandwiches. Plus, check out Slinkystar2002’s solid, extensive comment on Touchy Subjects: Confronting Loved Ones About Weight and Money Problems. It’s a bit long to cut-and-paste here, but her stories provide some good insight on the subject. (It’s the last one.) Finally, three cheers for Elaine, who dropped 50 pounds! Nice!

Collier: I woke up starving this morning with nothing in the house but egg whites, flour, skim milk and pam. so i made this recipe substituting pam for shortening and using three egg whites in place of one egg and two whites. they are delicious, and cooked in 20 minutes under 450. the batter made 12 popovers at about 50 calories a serving.

Dialectially_yours: To make things 'fast food easy' and to control portion sizes a bit more, I sit down and portion out snacks into the plastic snack bags. It's a good visual activity to SHOW someone how quickly those calories have stacked up.

Jaime: 90% of the time, I'm much happier eating a mango and a small piece of dark chocolate than 2 100-calorie packs of Oreo wafers. Of course, the other 10% I'm clutching a bag of BBQ Fritos like my life depends on it, so who am I to say.

Elaine: I know ALL about the SnackWell Syndrome. I think that's part of how I gained weight a number of years back. BTW, in the last year I've lost 50+ pounds, mostly by reducing portion sizes & taking up bike commuting.

Kelly: On Snackwell's syndrome: in high school, I used to take a Snackwell's brownie, slice it in half lengthwise, and fill it with peanut butter. This was my favorite side dish for a while. The more I pay attention to nutrition and to my eating habits, the more I'm convinced that eating as little processed food as possible - diet or regular - is the way to go. If I eat, say, a Lean Cuisine for lunch, I'm hungry again almost before I'm done eating. The same calories in homemade beans and rice fill me up all afternoon!

Sally Parrott Ashbrook: It's taken my taste buds a couple of years to adjust to a whole-foods, no-fake-sugar diet, but honestly, now that they have adjusted, a much smaller portion of the sweet stuff (the real sweet stuff), homemade or from a bakery, is far, far more satisfying than a larger portion of diet foods is. And I have the ability now (that I previously did not possess at ALL) to tell that some foods are actually too sweet to enjoy much of.

Daniel Koontz: What worked for us was this: instead of buying diet foods, we switched most of our weekly meals to vegetarian. Vegetarian cuisine is typically higher in fiber, more nutritious, less energy-dense and best of all, cheaper. We still eat meat, but only on occasion.

Dani: To cure sweet cravings, go cold turkey on sugar and use an unprocessed equivalent like muscovado or rapadura. They're not addictive and you'll find that in no time at all the sweet cravings have gone.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Cantaloupe is:A) Surprisingly easy to chop, though the juice gets dang near everywhere.B) Difficult to spell, with that whole “loupe” thing.C) Something your roommate might confuse for a hatstand.D) Meant for better things than fruit salad.

Orange juice is:A) Pretty friggin’ expensive, man.B) Orange.C) Being suspiciously cut back to 51 ounce containers (rather than 64) by some companies.D) A good base for any liquid with additional fruits.

Soup is:A) Eaten with a spoon. Or a fork if you’re looking for a challenge.B) Blind Melon’s second album.C) Not something you throw at your sister.D) An anytime kind of dish made from nearly any substance on Earth.

A beverage is:A) Seriously, where are you going with this?B) Because I’m not sure where it’s leading.C) And it’s making me hungry.D) A nourishing liquid taken from a glass.

Based on your previous answers, how would you evaluate a cantaloupe/orange juice-based liquid that makes a refreshing, fruity summer soup, but would also be delicious in a scotch glass with a jigger of vodka?A) Ohhhhhh. I get it. Okay. I’m ready to answer now.B) A soup, dummy. It’s spoonable, yes?C) A drink. Who ever heard of fruit soup? You need a brain checkup.D) Enh, it could really go either way, dawg.

And that concludes our quiz. You can find the answers at the bottom of this post, but before you go there and/or look at the recipe, a few notes on AllRecipe’s Cantaloupe Soup:

1) Make sure your cantaloupe is ripe. In the supermarket, you can tell when it’s ready to go by taking a whiff of the little circle at the top. If it smells, uh, cantaloupe-y, you’re in.

2) On the advice of AllRecipes reviewers, I cut a cup of orange juice out of the original recipe, which makes it more soup-like, but brings the servings down from a small six to a medium-sized four. If you’re making a drink instead of a soup, feel free to add the extra O.J. back in.

3) This is one of the easiest dishes ever. My sister and/or a slightly dumb monkey could do it. (Not to say my sister is a monkey, but rather that she’s not so good with the cooking. Love you, L!)

1) In a blender or food processor, combine cantaloupe and 1/2 cup orange juice. Blend until completely smooth. Pour into a big bowl. Add lime juice, cinnamon, and other 1/2 cup of orange juice to bowl. Stir. Cover with plastic wrap and stick in fridge for at least 60 minutes. Like mint? Sprinkle some on top right before serving.

ANSWERS: All of them. Everything was correct! You get an A++++! Now go buy that Red Rider carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time, but for pete’s sake, don’t shoot your eye out.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Blog of the WeekFrugal DadThoughtful, well-written and often funny, Frugal Dad’s four-month-old site is quickly becoming a go-to for folks interested in everything from finance to square-foot gardening. Check out his 7-day turnaround plan for some neat ideas on how to kick-start a savings strategy, and don’t forget to chime in on his latest post about Kids and Allowance. The salary chart is genius.

Comedy of the Week“Soup Nazi” from SeinfeldOo! Someone code-named AlasforAlas comped the best moments from the legendary “NO SOUP FOR YOU” episode! In a related story, the real-life Soup Nazi used to run his store a few blocks from my workplace, and he was really a pretty intimidating guy. But man, that soup was worth it. Especially the seafood bisque.

Organization of the Weekcharity: waterThis Jennifer Connelly-supported philanthropy helps provide clean drinking water and safe wells to communities around the world. Why water? Well, according to the site, “Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation causes 80% of all sickness and disease, and kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.”

Quote of the WeekRoss: I honestly don't know if I'm hungry or horny.Chandler: Stay out of my freezer.-Friends

Untried Cheap, Healthy Recipe of the WeekMagnificent Mussels at Kitchen WenchMussels are some of the most abundant and environmentally sustainable kinds of seafood out there, and this easy, tasty-looking recipe will make you want to buy a billion. Seriously. Look at that picture. Couldn't you even eat the shells?

Video of the Week“Sodajerk” by Buffalo TomContinuing with our “My So-Called Life” theme from last week, it’s Buffalo Tom’s best single, which appeared on the show’s soundtrack, as well as almost every mix tape my friend H ever made. Boy, do I miss these guys. Big Red Letter Day was such a stellar record, and they apparently released a new one last year, which I definitely need to get on.

Totally Unrelated Extra Special Bonus of the Week“Bowie in Space” by Flight of the ConchordsNew Zealand’s fourth most popular novelty folk band, the Conchords are the funniest musical act to come along since Weird Al was still wearing specs. Stick with “Bowie” through the preamble – it’s funny, but the song is killer. For supplemental extra-credit listening, try “Albi the Racist Dragon” and “Business Time.”

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Let’s get this out of the way up front: I eat diet products. I drink Diet Coke, inhale low-fat granola bars, and am not ashamed to love No Pudge brownies as if they were my own mother. Moreover, I challenge anyone who insists that their yogurt tastes better than Weight Watchers’ Amaretto Cheesecake brand to an all-out dairy war. (Note: I will win.)

Like most people who’re even slightly concerned about the magnitude of their bum, diet products are a part of my everyday life. I buy them regularly because they let me think that I care about what I eat, without actually having to care about what I eat. And in a world of 770-calorie Strawberry Frappuccinos and Deep-fried Cheesecake, doesn’t that borderline awareness count for something?

As it turns out, maybe not.

A flood of recent studies and articles claim that many diet foods may not be as beneficial as they initially seemed. While they can keep calorie counts down, there’s apparently a link between consumption of certain products and the tendency to be overweight. Some foods have even been found to flat-out promote obesity in animals, as well as high cholesterol and other exciting conditions.

I don’t mean to condemn diet products altogether, but these findings definitely raise some questions: like what, exactly are the problems with them? How do we address those issues? And in the long run, does it even matter? Let’s explore.

THE PROBLEMS

Diet products may cause overeating. This occurs in two ways. The first happens when an individual gorges on a diet food, since she believes it won’t hurt her as much as the full-fat version. (There’s even a name for it: “the SnackWell Syndrome.”) The second cause of overeating, according to Time Magazine’s Alice Park, is that “people are preprogrammed to anticipate sugary, high-calorie fulfillment when drinking a soda or noshing on a sweet-tasting snack. So, the diet versions of these foods may leave them unsatisfied, driving them to eat more to make up the difference.” In other words, you’ve initially tricked your brain into less calories, but your body won’t stand for it later.

Diet products might help people develop tastes for full-fat versions of the same food. One study suggests that this might be especially true of children. Says Sarah Kliff of Newsweek: “when we eat diet foods at a young age we overeat similar-tasting foods later in life, suggesting that low-cal foods disrupt the body's ability to recognize how many calories an item contains.” Think about it: if you’ve gobbled fat-free hot dogs your whole childhood, doesn’t it make sense that you’d wolf down the full-fat varieties as an adult?

Diet products can cost more. If you’ve ever priced shredded cheese against lower-fat versions of the same brand, this may ring particularly true. It may only be a $0.10 or $0.20 difference, but they add up over time. The most egregious example of this trend, however, is the rise of the 100-Calorie packet. You know, those baseball-sized bags of wafers purchased for $3.99 when three cookies would cost a fraction of the price? According to Morgan Stanley food industry tracker David Adelman, “The irony is, if you take Wheat Thins or Goldfish, buy a large-size box, count out the items and put them in a Ziploc bag, you’d have essentially the same product.” [Peters, NY Times.]

Diet products contain more artificial flavors and preservatives. This is more my own observation than the research (so please take it with a grain of salt), but diet foods seem to have lots more chemicals than their regular counterparts. Compare the ingredients of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips (Potatoes, Corn and/or Cottonseed Oil And Salt) with those of Lay’s Light Original Fat Free Potato Chips (Potatoes, Olestra, Salt, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Tocopherols, Vitamin K, And Vitamin D). Though I’m sure an abundance of cottonseed oil isn’t spectacular for the heart, isn’t olestra the stuff that “may cause anal leakage”? (Mmm … anal leakage.) Yikes.

Read nutrition labels. If you do buy a processed diet product (and who doesn’t?), take the time to scan the Nutrition Facts and ask some questions: what’s the saturated fat content? How many calories are in a serving? In what order are the ingredients listed? Are you comfortable with all the additives? Once there’s a better understanding of what goes into a product, your perspective on it might change. For help with decoding, here’s the FDA’s guide to food labels.

Cook. Preparing meals at home instills healthy habits, encourages quality time with family, and allows eaters to know exactly what’s going into their dinner. It de-emphasizes diet products and promotes a reliance on whole foods, as well.

Limit portions. Admittedly, I haven’t read French Women Don’t Get Fat, but friends and reviewers sum it up thusly: Gallic chicks eat almost whatever they want, but know when to say when. Conversely, we Americans aren’t raised to savor taste; we gulp our food down, and then look for more. That means one thing: dude, we need to get on the ball. Reasonable quantities are essential to both a balanced lifestyle and weaning ourselves off diet products, and the American Diabetes Association and Mayo Clinichave more.

Drink water. In almost every article I read, diet soda was cited as a main villain in the product studies. Water is free, abundant, crazy-healthy, and can actually be very tasty.

THE CONCLUSION

While I hardly think diet victuals are the devil, this research has helped convince me of something: we gotta try to eat right. That means no (or fewer) shortcuts. That means fruits and vegetables, rice and grains, and lean meats and fish (environmentally sustainable fish, of course). It means cooking and keeping a careful eye on what’s piling up in the pantry. It means indulging intelligently and avoiding chemical-laden science projects that attempt to pass themselves off as actual edibles.

Alas, nobody’s perfect, and being on-point all the time is exhausting. But, if once - just once - I can sub an orange in for that 90-calorie pencil-sized granola bar, at least it's a step in the right direction.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I didn't add "Why Bother" by Michael Pollan to this morning's links, but please read if you get the chance. Thoughtful, informative, and full of solutions, it's an excellent piece on how we as individuals can and do affect the environment.

Two excerpts:

1) "The climate-change crisis is at its very bottom a crisis of lifestyle — of character, even. The Big Problem is nothing more or less than the sum total of countless little everyday choices, most of them made by us (consumer spending represents 70 percent of our economy), and most of the rest of them made in the name of our needs and desires and preferences."

2) "The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world."Happy Earth Day!

Folks, I don’t know if you knew this, but it’s not only National Jelly Bean Day and National Karaoke Week, but also National Welding Month. So get out there, pop a Buttered Popcorn, belt “Since You’ve Been Gone,” and hug the nearest guy holding a blowtorch.

AV Club: Taste Test – NutriloafAnd you may ask yourself, “Sweet merciful crap, what is that THING?” And the Onion's answer is: “Nutriloaf, a.k.a. Prison Loaf, a.k.a. what it tastes like to have your soul whither and die inside of you.”

Chow: Q&A Alton BrownOO! Alton’s got a sequel to Feasting on Asphalt coming up called Feasting on Waves. It’s Alton on the sea! And after that? Feasting in Air and Space. AND? He’ll be featured in the Wii version of Iron Chef: Supreme Cuisine. Man, I love this guy.

The Economist: The new face of hungerWe’ve heard a lot about rising U.S. food prices lately, but they’re absolutely soaring in other corners of the globe. Basics (wheat, corn, rice) have jumped as much as 141%, and dozens of countries are in serious danger of a shortage. The really interesting part is where it all comes from: “The changes include the gentle upward pressure from people in China and India eating more grain and meat as they grow rich and the sudden, voracious appetites of western biofuels programmes, which convert cereals into fuel.” (Thanks to Serious Eats for the link.)

iVillage: How to Use Up Leftover IngredientsShort’n sweet slideshow on … take a guess. It includes quite a few recipes along with the photos of gray-haired aunties opening suspiciously perfect refrigerators, so skip on over.

NY Journal: Stars, Here and ElsewhereConfidential to New Yorkers: ever wonder why a four-star Time Out eatery might only notch two stars from the New York Times? Here’s your answer. Nice breakdown of the restaurant star rating system for Michelin, the Daily News, New York Magazine and more.

Monday, April 21, 2008

There comes a time in every former dieter’s life when she takes a good, long look in her boyfriend’s full-size IKEA mirror and comes to the realization that her thighs are slightly thicker than they were a year ago, her arms a tad flabbier, and her butt, while not quite epically proportioned, is definitely nearing a novella.

It is not a fun realization.

Ask any Weight Watcher, South Beach devotee, or heaven forbid, Slim Fast quaffer, and they’ll tell you straight up: the problem with dropping pounds isn’t necessarily doing it in the first place. Rather, it’s keeping them off. Maintaining that level of discipline over the long run is, for lack of a better term, really, really hard. Some ridiculous percentage of dieters pack the bulk back on within a couple of years, and I hoped that between the blog, the cooking, and my ever-burgeoning awareness of food, I could avoid that pitfall. Alas, a few too many beers and nachos later, and I’m at a delicate crossroads. Namely, do I address this minor gain now (before it gets worse), or do I hope a future of healthy eating and raised consciousness will right my nutritional wrongs?

This isn’t the first time this has happened, either. My body’s oscillated in heft since the mid-‘90s, a 40-pound swing I’ve strived mightily to halt. In 11 years, I’ve donned everything from an itty-bitty cocktail dress to a what I’m pretty sure was a burlap sack once worn by the Incredible Hulk. And I know it’s not good. The dietary see-saw is bad for my heart, my self-esteem, and womankind in general. I don’t want to care as much as I do. But I do. For all kinds of reasons.

Which brings us to popovers? (How’s that for a segue?) I remember Ma making these for my siblings and I when we were little, and being totally stoked at how huge and puffy they grew in the oven. Soft and chewy and warm, I didn’t know until yesterday that they’re also pretty healthy for a baked good. (Thanks, Betty Crocker!) You can eat ‘em anytime, and what’s more, at $0.14 a pop(over), they’re one of the cheapest foods ever to be featured on this here blog. Sweet.

I expect I’ll be eating a lot of popovers the next few months, but I’m not sure. I’ll keep y’all updated on my gluteal magnitude, though (lucky you), and hopefully we can make some sense of it together. Whee!

3) In a medium bowl, beat eggs a little. Then, add rest of ingredients and beat until smooth. (Don't go crazy - overbeating is not so good.) Split batter among pan cups. Each should be about 1/2 to 3/4 full.

3) Bake 20 minutes.

4) Drop oven to 350ºF and bake 15-20 more minutes. Popovers should be brown and puffy when finished. Remove from oven and get popovers out of pan a.s.a.p. Serve immediately.

Erica: I've also found a great way to make mac and cheese low fat is to sub in some cottage cheese. If you use 1/2 cheddar and 1/2 low-fat or 2% cottage cheese it tastes almost as cheesy. And the cottage cheese actually becomes very creamy.

Kevin:I have tried a few lower fat versions of mac and cheese. … My favourite of the ones that I tried is from a show called Eat, Shrink and be Merry.

Kristen: Whenever I made mac and cheese, I depend heavily on a roux to make it taste richer than it is. It helps a great deal with any weird clumps of cheese, and you can just toss it with hot pasta and the cheese, then stick it under the broiler for a browned top. An uber-simple roux is this: melt 2 T butter in a microwave-safe dish, then stir in 2 T flour with a fork. When it is lump-free, add 1 c milk (1% works just fine, or you can use something less skim), and heat until just bubbling around the edges. Whisk thoroughly to dissolve the flour mixture in the milk, and you'll see it start to thicken. Alternatively, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, and whisk constantly until you can smell the nuttiness of the flour. Add the milk, which you've heated to just under boiling in the microwave or on a separate burner, and whisk until the mixture thickens. Season with freshly ground black pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Toss with the hot pasta and sprinkle with cheese, or add the cheese to the roux, stir to combine, and toss with pasta.

J. Sassydo: Agreed, hops--ranch should never have ventured forth from the hidden valley. Also, when I want to keep it light, I dress my salad with a few squeezes of lemon juice or a drizzle of good vinegar. (Berry vinegars are especially great on summer greens.) Toss in some salt and freshly ground pepper, and you're in fat-free business.Mamacita: Don't be hatin' -- ranch dressing has its place.

Julia: I've been meaning to make my ricotta-spinach soup from True Tuscan by Cesare Casella, a fabulous cookbook, and you've inspired me to do it this weekend. It's an absolutely luscious use of part-skim ricotta cheese...does that fall under healthy? I hope so. But honestly, it's so good I don't care.

Anonymous #1: I learned to cook from one of the early TV chefs - Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet - who passed away a few years ago and disappeared from the air severals years before that because of a bit of a scandal. He was incredibly informative and took pains to be sure to show all techniques and methods. I'm sure you must be able to get all his different series on DVD, and, as I have them, can recommend the companion books wholeheartedly. (Good call, Anonymous. Can't believe I forgot this guy. - Kris)

Anonymous #2: I'd just like to add that Ina can't go a half hour without saying "That's fabulous.” (This is TOTALLY true. It’s like her favorite word next to “Jeffrey.” - Kris)

Anonymous: One thing to keep in mind is that certain pieces are WAAAY more versatile than others. Steel, NON-TEFLON cookie sheets get such a workout at our house that I have half a dozen and am always looking for two more, just to avoid having to stop cooking in the middle to wash and dry them! The other thing to remember are non-standard uses for less "necessary" items. Ramekins- the 7oz ones, or the new, 16oz "soup mugs" which are microwave and oven safe and come with a plastic lid. Why buy a jumbo-muffin pan if you have four or six 7oz ramekins? Set them on a cookie sheet for easy carrying/handling, and dont fill completely--there's no support for really big muffin tops. … 7oz ramekins are *wonderful* for making individual meatloaves or meatless quiches, and actually cook faster and more evenly in the smaller containers.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Wednesday night, The Boyfriend and I jaunted off to Queens to play Rock Band with our friends A and A. I’m not a big video game fan, preferring to read, socialize, or hit myself in the head with a mallet. That said, Rock Band was the most incredibly fun game in the history of America, time, and space. Seriously, playing skee ball on a roller coaster in Oz wouldn’t even compare. I got to strum bass to a Pixies song, bang drums to an R.E.M. classic, and discovered that my vocal range most resembles that of ‘70s-era Ozzy Osbourne. Which, frankly, is a tad uncomfortable, but good to know for future karaoke parties/Black Sabbath auditions.

Our impromptu evening of RAWK curbed my cooking plans, so I was forced to make Cook’s Country Low-Fat Broccoli Cheddar Soup late last night instead. (And lemme tell you - nothing endears you to a roommate faster than running a blender at 11pm.) The soup is part of my self-imposed Use More Cheese mandate, as one of the drawbacks of writing a healthy cooking blog is the general absence of face-loving, soul-warming, high-in-fat foods like bacon, chocolate, cheese, and bacony chocolate cheese. Cooking Light’s Fresh Tomato Lasagna, Cheesy Eggplant Bake, and Light Mac and Cheese have also been also part of the effort.

Which brings us back to the soup. I liked it! It made a healthy, gloriously green side or main course, with enough frommage-y goodness to keep me from feeling like I was drinking a salad. There are, as always, a few notes:

1) Leeks are dirty, dirty birds, so they have to be cleaned pretty thoroughly before adding to a recipe. I use Lidia Bastianich’s method, which can be found here.

2) I didn’t puree the soup well enough at first, which resulted in something not unlike leaf-strewn rainwater. It took a few minutes on ICE CRUSH to finally get a smooth consistency, but the extra choppage was worth it in the end.

3) Both leeks and broccoli were pretty pricey in my ‘hood this week, and I’m betting that better shoppers could make this schlamiel for about two bucks cheaper.

1) In a large pot over medium heat, warm butter until melted. Add leeks and broccoli stems. Cook around 8 minutes, or until both are a tiny bit soft. Add garlic. Cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant. It will look like this:

Add broth and water. Jack up heat until everything starts to boil. When that happens, drop heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer around 8 minutes, or until broccoli stalks are pretty soft. Then, add broccoli florets. Cover again and cook another 5 minutes, until those are tender, too.

2) Kill heat. Add soup to blender. Blend/puree the heck out of it, until there are no broccoli bits left. I can't emphasize this enough: it should be totally, completely smooth. Add mustard, milk, and cheese to blender. "Puree until cheese is melted." Salt and pepper to taste. (You can do this in two batches. Whatever you do CC says, "make sure to fill your blender no more than halfway with hot soup.")

Very special note: this soup will last a few days in the fridge, but be careful reheating. Boiling it will cause the cheese to do weird things, so cook leftovers over medium-low.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Hey everbody! I learned how to embed videos! Well, actually reader Hops taught me because I'm 30 and don't understand this newfangled technology stuff. Now, if there's anyone out there that can explain the flashing "12:00" on my alarm clock ...

Blog of the WeekMy Recycled BagsAfter a few seconds on this site, you too will be pretty amazed at what Cindy can do with a few dozen used plastic grocery bags, and how cute they can look when they’re repurposed the right way. She’s also newly diagnosed with breast cancer, so if you can pop over and lend a few words of support and/or “Wow! Nice bags!” it would be awesome.

Quote of the Week"As you know, the hot dog was invented in America when a family of raccoons wandered into a toothpaste factory." – Stephen Colbert

Service Organization of the WeekCanstructionThis is dead brilliant, and it’s a bit difficult to get all the details right, so I’ll let the site do it: “Canstruction is a design/build competition currently held in cities throughout North America. Teams of architects, engineers, and students mentored by these professionals, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. The results are displayed to the public as magnificent sculpture exhibits in each city where a competition is held. At the close of the exhibitions all of the canned food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to emergency feeding programs that include pantries, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.” How neat is that?

Tip of the WeekKings County’s local ant population decided to convene at our back door this past weekend. It wasn’t terrible, as Brooklyn ants are pretty laconic, preferring to smoke, swear, and whistle at 16-year-olds rather than lay siege to our food, but it did necessitate a terrible killing spree, along with 14,000 pounds of boric acid mashed into various household crevices. (Poisonous! But effective!) In retrospect, I would have been a lot better reading this post at Get Rich Slowlybefore totally losing my mind.

Untried Cheap, Healthy Recipe of the WeekTube-Shaped Pasta with Wild Mushrooms at Serious EatsSimple, filling, and still bizarrely Spring-y, I bet you could do this with button mushrooms and a little less olive oil and still get a pretty decent meal. Anybody wanna give it a shot?

Video of the Week“Lips Like Sugar” by Echo and the BunnymenLadies and, uh, the one gentleman that reads the blog … it’s time to muss your hair, don a black peacoat, and start gazing at your navel, because the BUNNYMEN are here. Yes, the BUNNYMEN. ALL HAIL THE BUNNYMEN. (*dances*) Woot!

Special Extra Bonus Video That Has Absolutely Nothing to Do With Food … of the Week:The Collected Wisdom of Angela ChaseIf any of you, like, hit high school in the mid-‘90s, odds are Claire Danes was, like, thinking everything you were, like, thinking. About life. About love. About school. About how Jordan Catalano’s hair hit his jawline at juuust the right angle. About how your mom is always, like, doing things that annoy you. About how Rayanne needs to cut back on the booze a little bit. About how Tino probably doesn’t exist. Anyway, like, these are her insights, and you should, like, watch them. (Thanks to Jezebel for the link.)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Ah, Spring - the birds are singing, the trees are budding, the construction next door has resumed, the writers’ strike is over, and last but not least, salad season is finally upon us. So gather ‘round, my leafy green-lovin’ compatriots, and let’s talk dressing.

Much like marinades and mixes, making your own salad dressing is a frugal, delicious, and preservative-free exercise. The problem, alas, is the fat content, as homemade toppings generally contain a small tureen of olive oil. While the heart-healthy liquid can have enormous health benefits in moderation, let’s face it – sometimes you just want (need?) to pile the stuff on.

Subsequently, as a naked salad is a dinnertime tragedy, listed below are 102 recipes for lightened dressings of all colors, shapes, consistencies, and flavors. They come from a variety of sources, including Eating Well and Cooking Light, both of which have dozens more deep within their recipe pages. And for those of you wishing to branch out? Fatfree.com is another excellent resource, and includes a long inventory of options that haven't been added here. If anyone out there knows of other neato sites, please share! (The comment section is waiting for your call.)

Oh yeah - one more thing: many of the dressings have good-to-excellent ratings on their home sites, but I haven’t tried a single one myself. Thus, this a strictly try-at-your-own-risk adventure. (A saladventure?) Like an Indiana Jones movie, only with lettuce.